Avoiding the Cold Outside - February 2009

We spent much of February travelling in Scotland visiting people, catching up post-Christmas and avoiding spending too much time in the nasty cold weather outside. Edinburgh saw lots of snow -- lots for it anyway -- and I got to get settled into my new job. To avoid descending into utter snark, I will not blog about my daily commuting adventures, but I am considering the entertainment value of Twitter.

O' Canada - 25/5/2008 - 28/5/2008

Like the stereotypical American, I had never set foot in Canada in my life. All of that changed after my supervisor moved there. He wants me to move there, too. Research-wise, it looks great. The lab should be ready in the next three or four months. The research groups are young and have lots of energy. I didn't see much outside of the university so I don't really know if I'm cut out to be a Londoner. But at least it was warm while I was there and everybody lied that the weather was always so nice there. Just a couple of pictures.

The Thames River in London. Ontario, that is.

Italy - 9/6/2007 - 9/12/2007

Guessing that I would be reasonably mended for travel, Brian and I booked a long weekend to visit his friends Ron and Arshiya who live north of Rome. With no real agenda, we enjoyed four days of playing with puppies and children, wandering the countryside, enjoying good food, and not understanding the neighbors. It was good fun.

Saturday morning, Brian and I headed for Newcastle airport. Fog hid much of the countryside and the sea as we headed south on the A1. We left civilisation (Scotland) and stopped for food for us and the car maybe 2/3 of the way there. The lady behind the counter at the cafe was less excited about customer service than her Scottish counterparts, which is tough but possible. The shuttle driver from the car park to the airport was nice but his driving reminded my back of its injuries. Newcastle Airport is in England, so not yet smoke free. Blech. It was good to get on the plane and be on our way.

We arrived to Ciampino on the south side of Rome the same day as my country's president was scheduled to be there. For whatever reason, he cancelled his trip and didn't make other arrangements for us to get a ride, so Ron, Arshiya, Shiana and Saesha met us at the airport. We headed north for their home and for Brian's all important reunion with Angelo and Tara.

Saturday afternoon began an extended, four day game of fetch the stick with the dogs. Arshiya's mother had left well more food from her restaurant than all of us could eat, so those were our dinner plans. Eventually, the boys got into the whisky. Still on painkillers, I asked Brian to be my designated drinker. Though a burden for sure, he accepted.

Shiana had her horse riding lesson with their the next morning. While she was off for that, Ron, Brian, Saesha and I wandered the garden and threw sticks for the dogs. Eventually, Shiana and her instructor came around to speak with us. My appalling French and Spanish meant I understood enough Italian words to be frustrated to not understand the context of the conversation. We wandered over to see his horses. He does more the horse whisperer kind of training and doesn't believe in using a bit.

The warmth was good. Brian seemed to be melting, but I was happy to be warm enough to not need a sweater.

We went for a stroll outside the village of Blera to see the Etruscan tombs. Dry dogs became wet dogs after they found a creek to cool off. Angelo was the avid explorer of the day. We were able to walk on some of the tombs, but Angelo climbed much higher than everyone else. We had a late lunch in a nice little restaurant in the town. They had gluten free pasta, so I was set. We spent the afternoon back at the house and then went for pizza in town. The pizza place knew everyone (but me) well and they made nice toppings for the my frozen piece of cardboard that was advertised to us as a gluten free pizza base. Everyone else's pizzas looked very nice, too. The puppies were sad to be left behind. After dinner, we visited with the neighbours of Ron and Arshiya who spoke very little English to match my guesses at Italian based on badly recalled Spanish. Mouthful? Indeed. Their puppy seemed bilingual.

Sunday, we went for another walk/lounge at some sulphur springs not far from the house. Puppies went, too. The puppies were allowed to play, too, though not in the stinkiest of the ponds, the warmer ones that people used for bathing. We played in the cold pond first, where the puppies could play, too, and Shiana demonstrated that she did not know how to swim yet. I felt guilty for being broken -- I couldn't go get her, but thankfully Ron could. We played in the stinkier, warmer sulphur springs and then Brian and I took the puppies back to the cold springs. They were sad to be excluded from the warmer ones but happy to play aquatic fetch the stick. Arshiya told Brian not to break Tara's tail again. Eventually, I took a brief dunk in the cold spring and then it was time to go.

We had just enough time to clean up before it was time to sit in traffic to the airport. Lanes schmanes seemed the Italian philosophy of driving, though thankfully Ron was well-versed. Amusingly enough, we sat in the same seats home as on the way out, evidence of this was the stick kayaker going over the waterfall that I drew in the EasyJet magazine.

Plumbers at work in Blera. I couldn't help but think that Amy from the kayak club is training to work in the wrong country.

Shiana enjoyed the view from the town of Blera.

Kissy Tara missed. Mostly.

Brian and Tara found a perch.

Agile Angelo explored much more of the Etruscan tombs than we did.

The bathing ponds were much warmer for swimming but smelled far more sulphury than the pond by the waterfall.

Fetch!

Tara was so enthusiastic about fetch that eventually she swam out with the stick for us to throw it farther for her.

The traffic was really stacking up on the way back to the house.

Barcelona revisited 31/1/2007 - 4/2/2007

My first trip to Barcelona was just about a year ago. I really enjoyed it. Friends Miquel and Nacho were fantastic hosts and tour guides. My second trip to Barcelona was courtesy of work. Guillermo didn't want to send his student to a conference alone so he arranged for the budget to send me in his absence without my conference-lean grant being billed a pence. The end result was much talk of dirt, wonderful but unfortunately brief reunions with Miquel and Nacho and a chance to revisit the city from a new perspective. I enjoyed Barcelona on my first trip. I fell in love with Barcelona on my second trip.

Wednesday night got both Clare and me to our hotels safely and Thursday was our day 1 for the conference. Clare ditched me after the morning session. Her career aspirations have nothing to do with burning dirt now that her thesis is happily submitted. She decided to spend Thursday afternoon as a tourist. I stayed for the rest of the day's sessions and made dinner plans with Miquel and Nacho. I suggested 7pm. They laughed and corrected me to a more appropriately Spanish and Catalan 8:30pm. I had a few extra minutes, so I found my way to the hotel's "gym" and ran 2 miles of intervals on the treadmill of dubious quality. I vowed the rest of the trip would have me running outside or not at all. No more hamster wheel.

Miquel met me at my hotel and led me through a short maze to a vegetarian restaurant called Organic that he liked a lot. Their slogan was Organic is orgasmic. I am sad that it was written only in English because I would love to know how to say it in Catalan or Spanish. Nacho met us at the restaurant. We had a great meal and great conversation, with Miquel helping to fill the gaps between my appalling Spanish and Nacho's incomplete English.

Friday was the meeting's field trip that was semi-fortunately overbooked already. It could have been useful, but not that useful. I had a glorious sunny day to myself to be a tourist.

After a bit of an epic run (hour and a half instead of the planned 45mins) and an epic hike up many stairs, I found my way to the Park Güell, named for Gaudí's patron and home of several famous Gaudí works. When I reached the summit of the monument in the park and was treated to a nice, but hazy view over the city, I found myself grateful that my first intentions of bicycle hire for the afternoon were not fruitful. It would have been much more of an epic climb on a bicycle.

Returning to the city centre, I spent about two hours just wandering the gothic quarter, which is when I really fell in love. Narrow streets twisting everywhere. Old, gorgeous architecture. People say Paris is a romantic city. Eh. Didn't feel it when I was there. The aura of Barcelona, especially the gothic quarter, was filled with romance. I ended my evening with a classical guitar performance at the Iglesia de Santa Maria del Pi, a small (relative to the nearby Catedral) and sparsely decorated church with beautiful stained glass windows and perfect atmosphere for music.

Saturday had me back at the conference, but the late start let me enjoy a run beforehand. My poster didn't get much attention. Redheaded stepchild syndrome. I continued what I started on Thursday, which was to corner people who spoke earlier, hand them a wee copy of my poster and ask them specific questions about what we might do to the soil by burning it. The answers ranged from practical to wacky but all were useful food for thought. Clare's talk was the very last of the day. Afterwards, we enjoyed cava with the rest of the attendees. I said my farewells and made my way home to enjoy a few minutes of lounging before meeting up with Miquel for dinner. He introduced me to yet another wonderful Catalan restaurant and we enjoyed a few hours to continue catching up. It made me and still makes me very happy to see him so happy.

Sunday was a touristy half day, sadly. I took one more morning run before wandering more of the gothic quarter and paying my respects to the Iglesia de Santa Maria del Mar, an architectural favourite from the previous trip. I bid farewell to the city mid-afternoon and bid farewell to Miquel and Nacho via sms, looking forward to another visit in the future.

The real reason for my visit was the International Meeting of Fire Effects on Soil Properties, a very interesting and oddly informal conference where they/we discussed the good and the bad of fire in much detail.

One of the neighbors seems quite fond of the tourists who visit the Park Güell.

One of the famous Gaudi sculptures popular for postcards.

I found a nice quiet spot among the maze of viaduct ruins in the park.

I wondered if I wore this outfit to the meeting and stood next to my poster, would I get more people to look at my poster?

Am I the only one who thinks pigeons are rats with wings?